Warner Bros. Discovery’s stock slides 5% after earnings fall short of estimates

Warner Bros. Discovery Inc.’s stock
WBD,
-0.10%
fell 5% early Friday after the company posted a wider-than-expected fourth-quarter loss and revenue that fell short of estimates, weighed down by weak ad revenue and the impact of the recent writers and actors’ strikes. The company had a net loss of $400 million for the quarter, or 16 cents a share, narrower than the loss of $2.101 billion, or 86 cents a share, posted in the year-earlier period. Revenue fell to $10.824 billion from $11.008 billion. The FactSet consensus was for a loss of 10 cents a share and revenue of $10.337 billion. Studio revenue fell 18% excluding the impact of foreign exchange, while network revenue was down 8%. Ad revenue fell 14%, mostly due to shrinking audiences in domestic general entertainment and news networks, as well as the impact from the exit of the AT&T SportsNet business. The stock has fallen 39% in the last 12 months, while the S&P 500
SPX,
+2.11%
has gained 26.8%.